Tag: #amwriting

“I suck at this,” she wailed. ” I’ll never get it. I’m going to fail. Why even bother to try?”

Some people take to certain things like ducks to water. Others not so much.

All five fingers are not the same, Mum used to say…

I watched as she struggled to accomplish her task, heaping negativity on her hapless head. Her words settled like corrosive dead-weights in my spirit.

“Don’t say such things,” I uttered. “Words are powerful. They stick and become self-fulfilling.”

If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it, Mum would say …

“That’s what you always say.” She sounded irritated. “So what? It’s just words.”

No. Not just words …

Proverbs 18:21 Life and death are in the power of the tongue …

I began to see a vivid picture in my mind. Two seedlings in glass containers, one full of acid and the other rainwater.

How it unfolded in my mind

“If you were a plant,” I said, “And words were the medium you were growing in, if kind, positive words were rain water and negative, condemning words were acid – which one would you thrive in?”

She grew silent.

“If you wake up every morning and hear someone tell you how ugly, rotten and dumb you are, that you’ll never go far or succeed, can you imagine the toxicity you’ll imbibe? At some point you’ll come to believe what you hear. Your spirit receives what your ear hears until it becomes a part of who you are.

No comment.

I plodded on. “On the other hand, if someone tells you daily that you are beautiful, smart, talented and capable of achieving anything you set your mind to … imagine the pure rainwater seeping in nourish your spirit.”

Point made. Her exasperation remained, but the dark words ceased.

For the moment.Oh, to always be able to see the gorgeous pink sunset behind and that dark, dark cloud…

Sunset behind a rain cloud (Niagara Falls, summer 2017)

Some weeks back, I stepped into the mall and understood — all over again — the power of words. I’d recently begun to experience occasional darts of doubt . Amazingly, that mellow evening, it seemed like my steps led me from store to store and brought pause at unexpected spots where wonderful words leapt out to cheer me on –

I couldn’t have contrived the inspiration, if I’d tried. My spirits rose and began to soar.

But that wasn’t all …

On my way home, there was an impelling to stop at a supermarket I don’t often visit. I paid for two bags of soil I didn’t urgently require and headed out. A man hurried up from behind and bent over my cart.

“Those look heavy,” he said pleasantly.

I smiled, “They are.”

“I need some for my garden,” the stranger added, “but that’s why I didn’t get any today!”

He straightened up and I became instantly aware of the words on the back of his T-shirt –

I had to get a picture so I would remember that moment always

I gotta believe …

Caught my breath on a gasp.

Gotta get a picture!

Hurried into the parking lot and chased the gentleman down.

Me (to man): I know this sounds silly, but do you believe in signs?

Man (looking startled): I do.

Me: Would you mind if I took a picture of the words on the back of your T-shirt? I needed to see them. They were my sign today.

Man turned around and obligingly posed.

Click!

Man: So what are your plans for the summer?

Me: I don’t know. I have so many dreams and they were beginning to die. That’s why I needed those words. Thank you!

Man: I really need to get some of that soil, you know.

Me: So go get some. Maybe I am your sign for today!

My heart sang all the twilit way back home.

Love how rosy watercolour-ish twilight cloaks the street – well after 9.00 at night (Canada Day, July 2017)

The final clincher came a week later, at the dentist’s office.

I became acutely aware – the moment I stepped in – of the single word tattooed on the neck of the girl manning the phones. She had her back to me –

Her co-worker held her hair out of the way while she posed for the picture